Benito Santini (Wildstorm Universe)

After years of arduous training and numerous covert missions, Ben Santini rose to become one of I.O.'s top operatives, a member of Director of Operations John Lynch's personal Black Razor unit. When WildC.A.T.s founder Jacob Marlowe put a bullet through Santini's knee during a battle, though, his Black Razor career seemed to be at an end.

Crippled by the injury, Santini refused to accept a desk job and opted instead to undergo a series of experimental operations to replace his shattered knee with a mechanical one. The operations proved successful, but the strain resulting of such efforts as participating in an operation was initially nearly unbearable even for him.

When Lynch unexpectedly resigned from I.O., Santini was chosen to replace him as Director of Operations, and he has since then struggled to prove himself worthy of the job in the face of the skepticism from his own men. To compensate for this, he adopted a policy of regularly going in the field with his former teammates, to show them they could still trust him. He showed them that, while not being Lynch, he had something different to bring them, something as valuable as Lynch's leadership and experience. Once that trust was granted, he avoided the field to spare his knee. Later on, he was even appointed interim Director of I.O., replaced at this office by Ivana Baiul.

Baiul, however, was very unpopular within I.O., and Santini and a couple of fellow I.O. executives attempted to blackmail her to have her let go of her new position, using material from a video footage taken during a raid of DV8 on a CIA base.

Project Entry

Santini launched Project Entry, an attempt to develop teleportation technology similar to the "door" teleportation gates used by the Authority. Under the direction of Dr. Kendricks, Project Entry replicated a Stormwatch project (which had briefly managed to open a gate to another universe before the StormWatch II satellite had to be destroyed and Stormwatch closed down) and it was functional within ten weeks.^[1]

Unknown to Santini, I.O. still had a number of men who owned their loyalty to the previous director: Ivana Baiul. Baiul learned of Project Entry and saw it the perfect vehicle to get rid of Santini by sabotaging the installation. After a science team led by Blake Coleman stepped through the portal, the machinery crashed due to subtle sabotage and Santini lost contact with the initial team. As Baiul had anticipated, Santini then mounted a rescue op, stepping in the repaired gate with a team of Black Razors. As soon as they were gone, the Project Entry was shut down and stranding the entire Black Razor team, I.O.'s operations director and several scientists were stranded on another Earth dubbed the Project Entry Universe.^[1]

They soon understood that every man, woman and child on this Earth had been slaughtered a few months ago; the streets of every city on the planet were full of piled, rotting corpses.^[1] They soon encounter the perpetuator for this unimaginable, a superhuman named Devil, who attacked and killed several scientists and Black Razors, leaving only Santini, Coleman, Luis Cisco, and a scientist named Dr. Offenberg alive. Santini dealt Devil by deceiving him into believing that he would escape into another universe, in which he teleported him to the Australian Outback and then detonated a compact nuclear device placed on him. Although this did not kill him.^[2]

Before returning to their Earth, Santini's team investigated and discovered that Devil was actually a project born on his own Earth, in his own organization, and headed by Ivana Baiul. Devil had been field-tested on an Earth that was completely unprepared for him, and stranded him there until being needed again. Santini attempted to have this terrifying discovery brought to the Hague as a war crime, but I.O.'s liaison with the US government, Senator Terns, buried the whole affair.^[2] Though none of the survivors of Project Entry would forget what happened; in which these events were in many ways seminal to what would later become Stormwatch Team Achilles. In particular, Santini arranged to have all the plans necessary to operate Project Entry.

Stormwatch Team Achilles

What happened during Project Entry, and the realization of Devil's true origin, marked a turning point for Santini. He knew humanity needed a considerably more powerful protection against out of control S.P.B.s (Super Powered Beings), and he knew he couldn't do it as part of American forces, given the issues with I.O.

Santini was assigned as the new Weatherman to a new Stormwatch called Team Achilles. Months before Stormwatch was launched, Santini along with Blake Coleman and Khalid Tefibi was inspecting and decrypting numerous files on S.P.B.s previously possessed by Henry Bendix.^[3] Santini also had a fully operational Project Entry projector assembled in Stormwatch's headquarters in the United Nations building, although he did not give Tefibi enough info for him to understand the full implications of the technology.^[4]

Despite those preparations, the new Stormwatch had to be rushed into action three weeks early. Santini's nemesis, Ivana Baiul, was now head of America's Civil Defense Administration, decided to test Santini and his team by hiring Islamist super-terrorists to the Headquarters of the UN.^[4] Santini and Coleman managed to infiltrate the besieged building and assemble the team before taking out the majority of the SPB terrorists and forcing their remaining members to retreat. Shortly after, Santini was teleported against his will by the UN's Special Security Council, the true power holders of the United Nations who were mainly responsible for financing the original Stormwatch. The Council did not authorize Team Achilles, in which Santini never asked them, and they offered Santini a deal to work for them or die if he refused. However, Santini had already planned ahead for the Council's elimination. Using a tracker embedded in his artificial knee, Santini summoned his assault team, Jukko Hämäläinen and Jaeger Weiss, through a Project Entry portal that is unaffected from being electronically blocked by the Council, and without hesitation executed the Councilmen and framed their deaths to be caused by the terrorists.^[3]

Unlike the original Stormwatch, Team Achilles was very low-key and was working with an UN budget. Santini had a very international team made of less than ten persons, almost all of whom had elite military training and had proved to be the best of the best. All the Americans on the team (Luis Cisco, Blake Coleman, Khalid Tefibi) were ex-I.O. operatives who hated Baiul and I.O.'s policies, and were personally loyal to Santini. Most of the team has had hostile encounters with posthumans prior to joining Team Achilles, and shared to some degree of Santini's distrusts towards posthumans. Despite the team's hostility to S.P.B.s, Santini allowed superhumans such as Flint and Alias into the team, as he and his team only target those who misused their powers to terrorize society.^[5]

During the following months, Santini led Team Achilles in eliminating the super-terrorist group who attacked the UN and capturing their Seedling activator Dhul Fiqar in Chechnya while at the same time preventing the Russian Army from invading the country; took down a reality-manipulating SPB who had taken over a small American town; preventing the reincarnated Citizen Soldier from destroying the United States government; and stopping the supervillain dictator Baron Chaos. Santini also abused Team Achilles' resources to enact his revenge on Senator Terns by holding prisoner at Team Achilles' HQ and had him replaced by the shape-shifter Alias.^[6] Santini also assigned Flint to finally kill Devil.^[7]

When the Authority took control of the United States, the situation for Stormwatch became dire. They could no longer operate from Manhattan, and it became almost certain the UN would fold if the new Authority-led U.S. government asked for Santini. Santini destroyed everything in his H.Q., executing his one remaining prisoner and evacuated a few seconds ahead of the Authority. He then offered his teammates the chance to leave Stormwatch and escape from being captured by the Authority; however, everyone chose to remain together and they went underground while being labeled as wanted fugitives.^[8]

During the next two weeks, Santini married Flint before accepting a contract from the Vatican, in which he found himself in a struggle between the two self-declared descendants of the Merovingians - and thus, of Jesus Christ.^[9] Santini eventually maneuvered his way out of the thick intrigue by having everyone killed and selling their genetic materials to the Vatican.^[10]^[11] Thereafter, several of Team Achilles' prisoners in the Project Entry Universe (including Senator Terns and the latest reincarnation of Citizen Soldier) made an escape attempt and clashed with Team Achilles again. Santini and his team end up trapped in the Project Entry Universe, in which they and their enemies put aside their grudges and spent the next several years searching for a functional Stormwatch teleporter that could return them home.

World's End

During his stay in the Project Entry Universe, Santini's marriage with Flint deteriorated after trekking a fruitless search across Siberia. Eventually, Santini and the others managed to find a teleporter and returned to their home.^[12] Upon their return, they learned about another newly formed Stormwatch that was created in their absence and leaving Santini pleased to know that the world doesn't need Team Achilles. However, Santini's brief moment of respite was tarnished by the onset of Armageddon, forcing him and his team to continue once again to "kill some superhumans."^[13]

Powers and Abilities

Abilities

Paraphernalia

Equipment

Black Razor gear

Weapons

Various Firearms

Notes

Technically, Ben Santini was created by Jim Lee and Brandon Choi, since he first appeared in WildC.A.T.s #2, but he wasn't given a name or personality until WildC.A.T.s #15, which was written by James Robinson and illustrated by Travis Charest.

Benito Santini (Wildstorm Universe)

Contents

History